Did Chris Watts and Nicol Kessinger have a drug addiction? And, what about those Thrive Patches?

What role did drug addiction play in the Chris Watts murder? Was Chris Watts on drugs? Was Nicole Kessinger on drugs? Did she get him on drugs? That's what we're going to cover in this video. We've had so many requests to weigh in on this topic. It's time to examine the subject. We're going to take a look at the evidence, and not only are we going to look at what role drugs played in this case, but we're also going to take a look at the thrive patches and examine whether or not that had any impact on what happened to the Watts family. Foreign. For those of you who are new here, I'm Amber Hollingsworth. You're watching Put the Shovel Down. And this channel is dedicated to helping you understand the science and psychology of addiction so that you're always five steps ahead of it. Now, as many of you may already know, not too long ago made a video about the addiction that Chris Watts had to Nicole Kessinger. Mostly I talked about the infatuation stage, the that's called limerence, and how that is really an addicted state of mind. And in that video, I told you how I really feel like that was the primary motivation behind the terrible events that happened to this family and destroyed so many lives. But as a result of that video, I had so many questions from you guys about the possibility of an actual drug addiction. Did that play a role in this situation? And then I had a lot of questions also about the thrive patches. Was that an addiction? Did it contribute? Anyway, let's dissect the situation one thing at a time. Now, before I go much further, I've never met any of these people. I can Never tell you 100% sure about any of these things. But based on the knowledge that I have, I'm going to give you my professional opinion about what I think happened here in regards to the drug speculation. Okay, let's go Three really prevalent theories out there. One, people seem to think that maybe there was a problem with pain pills. In the investigation, it came out that Chris Watts had attempted to give his wife some kind of pain pills, oxys, I think, in order to try and cause her to lose the pregnancy. Now, I think that one little piece of information is probably where the most of this thought process about was there a drug problem going on? And the big thing that really seems to trigger people up is because. Is because Chris Watts said that he would never tell where he got those drugs from. And everyone seems to be speculating that he must have gotten them from Nicole Kessinger. Now, listen, I don't know where he got them. You don't know where he got them. We don't know where he got them. But what I will say is that everyone seems to jump to a very fast conclusion that it must have come from Nicole Kessinger. Hey, maybe it did, but there's really no evidence to that. And you've got to admit that we are jumping to that conclusion. Now, I know anytime I talk about the situation, especially Nicole Kessinger, people get all up in arms because everybody wants her to be the worst, most heinous villain. Hey, maybe she was. But we're gonna use only the evidence that we actually have to look at. We're gonna try to remain objective here. He could have got that from his sister or his father or any other place that you can think of. It doesn't necessarily mean it had to come from Nicole Kessinger. Okay, so besides this whole issue of where did it come from? Let's take a look. Not it's possible that he could have had a pain pill problem? Well, of course, that is entirely possible. And the main reason I say that is because of all the theories out here about the different drugs. Pain pill addiction is the absolute easiest to hide. And when people are addicted to pain pills, it's really hard to tell. Especially in the early stages, when someone's addicted to pain pills, they don't look intoxicated, they don't slur their words, they don't smell funny. They don't really even act funny. In fact, when people are addicted to pain pills, a lot times for the first few years, they'll be better functioning. They'll get employee of the month, Their grades will go up. And so I can't tell you how many times families come to our office and someone's had a pain pill addiction, and the family's like, how did this go on so long? Usually for years before we even knew it. And it's because you really can't tell, especially in the earlier stages, because the signs and symptoms just do not look like other substances. Where you can kind of tell someone's intoxicated, you're just not going to get that at all. So is it possible that he could have had a problem with pain pills? Well, yeah, I guess I'll say that's possible. Is it possible that Nicole Kessinger had a problem with pain pills and influenced Chris Watts? Yes, I'd have to say that is entirely possible, because, like I said, it's really hard to tell, especially with that particular addiction. Now, yes, I'm saying it's possible. But hang on there, because I'm going to come back to it in just one second and tell you about whether or not I think it was likely that that's what was going on. But before I do that, let's take a look at the other theory that seems to be floating around out there. There's this other theory that maybe there was an addiction to some sort of stimulant medication. Mostly people are talking about, like, methamphetamines, otherwise known as meth, on the streets. Now, I did watch a video by the armchair detective, which was a great video, where he really zoomed in on some physical evidence that Nicole Kessinger could have had a problem with meth or some kind of stimulant addiction. The main thing from what I saw from that video that he really zoomed in on was that in those interrogation or interview, maybe we'll call it interview videos that they did with Nicole Kessinger, she had her hair pulled back in a ponytail. And you could see that her hairline looked a little bizarre. It was almost like there was patch or two maybe that really looked like it was almost like a bald patch, like it should have had hair there, but it didn't. And then he sort of. So he looked at that interrogation video, and then he zoomed back in on some of the pictures that are out there that we've all seen about some of the dates they were on, and that you really couldn't see that hair loss. Well, part of the issue was in the investigation video she had her hair in a ponytail. And some of the other videos she did not. I did look to see that there are a couple of pictures back before the investigation where she had her hair in a ponytail. And it's really hard to tell whether those little spots were there before the interview or just were there after or during the interview. The other piece of evidence that he really zoomed in on by he, I mean the armchair detective, was the fact that she seemed sort of shaky or twitchy or jittery or she had these, like, fast movements, which can be an indicator of a stimulant abuse problem. So can hair loss. But let's take a look at these pieces of evidence from an addiction lens. The first piece let's look at is the missing hair piece. Yes, stimulants or meth can cause hair loss, but typically when you see any kind of drug induced hair loss, it's like. It's more like the thinning of hair. So someone's hair becomes progressively more and more thin, they just lose more and more hair. You don't really see that they lose a patch of hair in one spot. So I don't really view that spot. I don't know why it was there. I don't know if it was there before, after. But I don't necessarily view that as an indicator that there was some kind of meth problem going on. Now, as far as the other piece of evidence, the twitchiness, the jerkiness, it's really hard to tell because when you look at his video, you can tell it's, it's cut and cropped a little bit and she was fairly excitable in that interview. We're not going to go into dissecting all of that interview or what she lied about or she didn't. I have another video on that. But in an overall sense, what I'm going to say is I don't really think that's enough evidence to conclude that there is a methamphetamine problem. And moreover, when you look back at all the pictures of her hair and skin and his hair and skin, they both look really healthy. Her hair looks shiny, her skin looks really healthy. And if someone had a long standing methamphetamine problem, they just really would not have that healthy skin and hair look. So could there have been some methamphetamine use? Yeah, I guess there could. Could there have been some pain pill abuse use, whatever? Yes, I guess that there could. But there' not any evidence out there that there was an addiction to these things or any long standing problem to these drugs. I just don't see a whole lot of other evidence out there. The only other thing that's being talked about is the fact that Nicole Kessinger supposedly called a sober living facility, but there's nothing out there to say why she did that. Was she calling to talk to someone else? Was she calling for herself? So, yeah, there are these little pieces of information that we all want to grab onto. In this case, it's particularly hard because we just want to grab a hold of it and take the worst possible case scenarios and insert them. Because it's a natural reflex. We just want to make sense of what happened and it was just so awful that it's hard to make sense of. And we want to put these puzzle pieces in place sometimes that really just aren't there. Could there have been substance abuse? Yes. Do I think that was the primary cause for what happened here or do I even think there was evidence of long term addiction? I really don't see that evidence. And I don't think that that was the primary cause. Or even a big factor in what went on in the Watts case. I do think addiction was at play. I think it was. He was addicted to this love affair that he was having. Now, a lot of you from my last video have asked me questions. And most of you commented. And you said that he was addicted to the intimacy. Let's just call it that. But I really don't think it was that kind of addiction either. Yes. Was that a big part of the relationship? Was that part of what was driving the connection and the infatuation? Certainly it was. But I don't think that was the addiction. I think the relationship itself was the addiction. The reason I say that was because if it was just about the intimacy. He wouldn't have been so keen to get out of the relationship that he's in. Because people that are addicted to that. It's really just about that. It's not about the connection. It's not about the attachment. It's about the physical act. And you can see with the Watts case. It was about a lot more than just the physical acts. He thought, felt, whatever, that he was madly in love with her and could not live without her. And that's more than just the physical part. That is an addiction to the actual relationship. Like I said, it's that limerence, infatuation state. Which really puts us in an addicted state of mind. Now, am I saying that that alone would cause someone to do what he did? Absolutely not. And like I said before, I talk about how all those factors come into place. In the other previous video that I did. Now, I could probably be more convinced. That the thrive patches. Had a slightly larger role to play in what happened. Do I think that it was a primary factor? I really don't. I truly think the primary factor was the infatuation with the relationship. And here's how I think the thrive patches contributed. I do think that they contributed to helping both Chris and Shanann Adopt this really healthy lifestyle. That he started working out. That he started feeling great about himself. That his confidence started really getting bolstered. And before that, he's really this quiet, shy, in the background kind of guy. So when Nicole Kessinger starts to pay attention to him, that feels really good. At the same time, his confidence is up. My guess is his testosterone was up. All his hormones were up. And I do think that that led into what created the relationship with her. So I do think it contributed in that. I think the chemicals that are actually in the patches themselves caused him to do what he did? No. Do I think that it contributed to him losing all the way and getting really buff and feeling really confident and attracting Nicole Kessinger? Yes. And do I think that. And I think that relationship was the addiction and that addiction is what is the main contributing factor that led to the decision that he made. Now, if you guys know of any other criminal cases out there that have anything to do with addiction or possibly have to do with addiction, let me know that in the comments, and I'll take a look at those cases as well.